Startup Weekend Johor Bahru@UTM Reflection Report
From 26th April 2019 to 28th April 2019, I took part in a Startup Weekend Competition organised by UTMXCITE. The venue of this event located at Division of Innovation, UTMXCITE, S01 UTM Johor Bahru. Startup Weekend Johor Bahru at UTM 2019 is a global event under Techstar which allow us to launch a startup after 54 hours through hands-on and mentoring sessions. The theme of this program was “Achieving Sustainable Development Goals”.
On the first day, the event started with icebreaking and networking session. This session enabled us to meet new friends within a short period of time through small games. As I am an extrovert and outgoing person, I grabbed this chance to reach out the participants in order to expand my social circles. I have met some new friends from different faculties and we had some short exchanges on our background. We manageD to change our contacts so that we can get in touch in the future. After the ice breaking session, participants who have startup idea in their mind were asked to present their idea on the stage by a given period of 30 seconds. Then, they were requested to illustrate their idea in a mahjong paper for voting session later. During the presentation, I noticed some participants were so confident in presenting their idea and they actually came out with great idea that really attracted me. When the voting session ended, I saw some great ideas were in the lists. During the group forming session, I managed to form a team of 3 with my other friends. I noticed there have roughly 10 teams all together participating in this event while each team containing around 3-5 people. When everyone done grouping, we started discussing and brainstorming about the startup business idea within groups. Besides that, I noticed there was an area providing free flow of snacks and drinks. I’m so excited to have free food sponsored as I will need some fuel to keep me energized and awake throughout this 54 hours. This setup will definitely keep us stay hyper-focused during the long working session. I have never stayed awake for such a long hour, it will be a long haul ahead.
Brainstorming a startup idea is definitely not an easy task, especially within a limited time given. I felt exhausted and headache in the very first beginning as we could not proposed an idea which is unique, attractive and at the same time brought us high revenue. I felt more nervous and anxious especially I saw other team had set up their main idea and continued with the next step. However, I did not defeat by all these feelings and continued to research and discuss. In the team, we voiced out our ideas, listened to each other comments and researched more solution to solve the problem in our proposed idea. As the saying goes, “Fall seven times and stand up eight”. Finally, we managed to come out with a good idea which is gimmeFood Delivery Service. GimmeFood Delivery Service is a food delivery application that provides food delivery service that is more accessible and efficient compared to market competitors. With this application, users are able to order food anytime and experience faster delivery service. Our team were very confident with this idea and we continued to work further on this gimmeFood Delivery Service. Everything became smoothly and I started to enjoy myself during the working process.
I personally think the best part of this event is the mentoring session. I noticed there were total of 14 mentors were invited to this event. I believe face to face communication and discussion with mentors from different background and professions will surely expose us to new ideas and new ways of thinking. When discussing with different mentors towards our proposed ideas, we actively asked question and feedbacks from them. Every mentor were so friendly and helpful, during discussion, they will guide us on identifying and correcting gaps in generic skills and knowledge. They also shared their ideas and comments about our prototype which really helps a lot in our idea making process. Not only they guided us in developing and maintaining a broader perspective on opportunities, but they also advised us on professional development and advancement. With the different advises and encouragement given from the mentors, me and my team continue to work on the best version of our ideas in order to fulfil every aspect needed.
In this event, there is a lot of time required us to present our ideas especially to mentors as well as during pitching session. This is the time I realised the importance of a role as a presenter and the presentation skills. How well you present yourself does not guarantee success but certainly improves your chances of success. The responsibility of a presenter is to be able to convey the message to others with full confidence and clarity. This reminds me of various times of presentation in school. In school, a project is usually divided into groups of 4-5 people to work together, the presenter in the group plays an important in delivering the result or the output of the project to our lecturer. Most of the time, our grades relating the project presented depends on good presentation skills. Similarly, in this event, we need to use the most effective techniques to present or communicate our idea across in less time focusing on the key elements. During every pitching sessions to the mentors, I believe I am trying and learning at the same time. With the numerous attempts, I am becoming more confident during presentation and able to deliver key points clearly to listener in a more technique way.
In my opinion, the most significant aspect during this event is teamworking. I felt so grateful as our teamwork is very strong and everyone has done their part perfectly. As the idioms goes, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success”. I understand that without my awesome teammates, difficult task would not become easier. As a computer science student, I barely have the knowledge relating to business terms like revenue stream, Business Model Canvas (BMC) and other skills like how to ensure our business is profitable while at the same time bring us high income. However, my teammates were willingly to explain and teach me in detail. In order to achieve a common goal, we eventually work together, do a lot of research and market validation to ensure our project’s feasibility. When we have different opinion, we will listen to each other opinions and discuss together to find out the best solution. The best part is I always felt comfortable when working with them. It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it does not matter who gets the credit.
In the last day of the event, every participant was required to join the final pitching session where we have to pitch our idea within 3 minutes to the judges. It is the day for every participant including my team to showcase our ideas and prototype to the judges. We were so excited and nervous at the same time to present our idea as we have been working so hard around the clock to complete it. Trying to calm ourselves down, we patiently waiting for our turn. In the end, we managed to perform well during the pitching session. When the time to announce the winner has come, me and my teammates held our hands together so tightly. In the bottom of our heart, we prayed so hard to be announced as the winner. With our hard work paid off, we successfully won the second prize in this competition. I felt excited and unbelievable when the organiser announced us as the second prize winner. This is not only the prize we won, but at the same time we gained a lot throughout this event especially on gaining new knowledge and making new friends. I felt so contented because in just 54 hours, I experienced the highs, lows, fun and pressure that make up life at a startup.
As a computer science student, I never thought I will be taking part in any program related to entrepreneurship. But luckily enough, I grabbed the chance and took part in this Startup Weekend organised by UTMxCITE. The experience I gained from this event is uncountable and all the inputs from our mentors are so precious. I have learnt that teamwork is the key when working in a team as teamwork motivates unity in the workplace, offers different perspectives and feedback and provides great learning opportunities. I also learnt that the importance of communication skills and presentation skills. As a next step. I will continue to work harder to improve my presentation skills as it will bring great benefits either in my schooling years or in the workspace in the future. Joining this event also increase my interest in entrepreneurship field. I will definitely expose myself deeply into this field. Lastly, if there is another chance in the future, I would definitely join this event again!